A Trip Down Racing's Main Drag

Sport Traveled The Fast Lane To The Big Time

In its rawest form - which, by the way, has always been illegal - there is nothing more pure and unfettered in motorsports than drag racing.

Think about it.

Two cars and two drivers on a straight stretch of public road. No crowds, crews or sponsors. No TV, radio or pencil-pushing reporters getting in the way.

Best of all, no rules, no appeals and no second chances.

Picture those two cars and drivers beside each other at the same stoplight in Pomona, Calif.

Whatcha running? the guy in the Ford asks the guy in the Chevrolet.

Four-oh-nine with a Holley four-barrel, the Chevy driver says. How about you?

The guy in the Ford smirks. Three-ninety-six, bored 25/100ths over, he says. And a Holley deuce.

His voice dripping with disdain, he adds, What's it to you ?

The Chevy guy looks over and answers, Wanna drag?

In one variation or another, that's how drag racing started 40-some years ago in Southern California: Two drivers at a light, each convinced his tinkered-with car can outrun the other.

Maybe they settled it by sprinting to the next stoplight on Colorado Boulevard. Maybe they found a dark desert highway east of Los Angeles or a dry lake bed near Bakersfield.

Lore tells us drag races last only a quarter-mile because that was the distance between Southern California intersections in the '40s and '50s. (This was before urban sprawl, freeways and residential development killed late-night street racing).

However it started, there's no question that professional drag racing has grown into one of America's richest, most popular, most competitive and best-organized forms of motorsports.

Just as stock car racing was organized and led into maturity by one man - the legendary Bill France Sr. of Daytona Beach, Fla. - drag racing was founded and directed through its formative years by Wally Parks.

Now 82, Parks became interested in speed trials and performance runs when his family moved from Kansas to Los Angeles in the early '20s. He helped form the Southern California Timing Association and led efforts to open the Bonneville Salt Flats to speed trials in the late '40s.

When Parks realized the scope of illegal street racing, he organized events on abandoned runways and closed-off streets. He founded the National Hot Rod Association in 1951 and brought rules, safety, prize money and publicity to what had always been an outlaw series.

Parks and his staff created enough divisions that almost anyone could compete. They devised a handicap starting system so street-legal cars would have a chance against souped-up cars. They established regional and national schedules, attracted sponsors, provided insurance for competitors and ensured that rules were enforced.

NHRA-sanctioned racing received an enormous boost when R.J. Reynolds Inc. became its prime sponsor in 1975. The company has poured tens of millions of dollars into purses, postseason bonuses, advertising, customer giveaways and publicity. This year alone it will distribute $2.26 million to drivers in bonuses.

Today, the NHRA has 80,000 members, 135 member-tracks and 26,000 competitors. Last year, the California-based organization sanctioned and supervised 3,800 events that attracted almost five million fans.

Closer to home is the International Hot Rod Association. The Bristol, Tenn.-based IHRA, which has 10,000 members and 80 member-tracks, sanctioned 1,000 events last year. It operates largely in the shadow of the NHRA, much like the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) runs its stock car series in the shadow of the older, larger and better-known National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).

Unlike most of America's major series, drag racing visits almost every part of the country. Four of the NHRA's 20 races are on the West Coast, three are in the Southwest, four in the Southeast, two in the Northeast, five in the Midwest and one in the Rocky Mountains.

The Winston-sponsored tour will come to Virginia for the first time this year. The inaugural Virginia Nationals are scheduled for June 1-4 at Don Beverley's two-year-old Virginia Motorsports Park just south of Petersburg.

They'll come to Virginia two weeks after racing in Englishtown, N.J., and go directly from Petersburg to Kirkville, Ohio, for another race the next weekend.

Englishtown and Petersburg are among the eight NHRA national meets scheduled for live coverage by The Nashville Network. In addition, the NHRA's Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Bike all-star races will be carried live by TNN.